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A Crash Course in Bookish Acronyms

A glossary of bookish acronyms, perfect to bookmark for future reference.

Kristina Pino

Staff Writer

Teacher, Avid Traveler, Life-long Reader, Beer Guzzler, Jigsaw Puzzle Lover, Disney Mega-fan, and other Fancy Titles can be used to describe Kristina. She spends her time blogging, tweeting, vlogging, podcasting, and making puzzles when she isn’t out having an adventure, cozied up with a book, or responding to the Bat Signal. She’s from sunny, tropical South Florida. Her life is pretty awesome right now. Blog: GeekeryDo Twitter: GeekeryDo

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When faced with unknown acronyms, folks seem to fall into three categories: the ones who ask, the ones who research, and the ones who neither want to ask nor research. Hopefully, this little glossary will satisfy the needs of folks in all three of these categories, since I’ll have done the research and put everything in one neat little page anyone can bookmark for future reference. Of course, if there are any bookish acronyms I’ve missed, feel free to helpfully drop them in the comments below. I’ve only listed the ones I see regularly around the bookish web, so it’s definitely possible.

I’ve gone ahead and separated my acronyms here into sections, which should make it easier to find exactly the right one.

General Reading:

  • TBR: To Be Read
  • DNF: Did Not Finish (can be verbed as DNFd)
  • ARC: Advance Review Copy
  • DRC: Digital Review Copy
  • TBB: To Be Bought
  • OOP: Out Of Print
  • MC: Main Character

Genre and Demographics:

  • SF: Science Fiction
  • SF/F: Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • UF: Urban Fantasy
  • PNR: ParaNormal Romance
  • MG: Middle Grade
  • YA: Young Adult
  • NA: New Adult

    Organizations and Events-related:

    • ALA: American Library Association
    • PLA: Public Library Association
    • OIF: Office for Intellectual Freedom
    • BEA: BookExpo America
    • BRL: Book Riot Live
    • S&S: Simon & Schuster
    • PRH: Penguin Random House
    • NBA: National Book Award
    • GR: GoodReads
    • BBW: Banned Books Week
    • WBN: World Book Night

    Formats:

    • GN: Graphic Novel
    • PB: Paperback
    • TPB: Trade Paperback
    • MMPB: Mass-Market Paperback
    • HC: Hardcover

    Other Fun Stuff:

    • LCS: Local Comics Shop
    • LFL: Little Free Library
    • ILL: Inter-Library Loan
    • M/M (in romance, a male/male pairing. Which brings us to…)
    • F/F (female/female romance)
    • HEA: Happily Ever After
    • HFN: Happy For Now
    • OOC: Out Of Character
    • POD: Print On Demand
    • ROUS: Rodents Of Unusual Size